In some of the most difficult moments following the deadly Interstate 75 crashes, family members publicly identified the last unknown victims four days after their deaths.
Michael Hughes and his wife, Lori, were in the front seats of a Dodge pickup truck heading south from Pensacola when the pickup slammed into a stopped semitrailer Sunday morning, according to a Florida Highway Patrol release. Then a Ford SUV rear-ended the pickup, crushing the truck. Both vehicles caught fire.
The couple, and Michael's 17-year-old daughter, Sabryna Hughes Gilley, died. Because the damage to the truck was so extensive, medical examiners did not find Sabryna's remains until two days later, the teenager's mother, Celeste Knapp, told the Pensacola News Journal on Thursday.
After the crash, which was caused by thick smoke and fog early Sunday morning, a tow truck carried the Hugheses' pickup to the forensics compound in the back of the Alachua County Sheriff's Office.
"[The pickup] looked like an accordion," said Larry Bedore, director of investigations for the District 8 Medical Examiner.
Gainesville Fire Rescue peeled back layers of twisted metal before removing the pickup's roof and front seats. On Tuesday, medical examiners discovered Sabryna, increasing the death toll of the crashes to 11.
FHP did not confirm the identities of the three victims in the truck Thursday, but authorities told Knapp on Tuesday they found the remains of her daughter, according to the News Journal. Messages sent to Sabryna's family members were not returned Thursday night.
Michael, Lori and Sabryna were traveling to Sarasota on Sunday to attend Lori's father's funeral.
More than a dozen people worked on the truck this week, including medical examiners, forensics specialists, detectives and crime scene investigators, Bedore said. An anthropology team from UF was also involved.
Led by Katie Skorpinski and Traci Van Deest, six or seven students helped, said Dr. Michael Warren, director of the C.A. Pound Human Identification Laboratory. The lab, located in the Shands at UF Cancer Center, analyzes skeletal remains for the medical examiner's office.
The investigators spent the week combing through the inside of the truck with brushes, looking for charred bones and teeth.
Friends and family members will hold a candlelight vigil in Sabryna's honor tonight at Avondale Park in Pensacola at 5:30.
"My daughter and my best friend left this temporary world as a victim of the deadly I-75 crash in Gainesville," Knapp wrote on her Facebook wall Wednesday morning. "This is an incredibly hard disposition for me.... She impacted and touched lots of lives."
A memorial service will be held for Sabryna at Jubilee International Ministries at 5910 North W St. in Pensacola on Sunday at 3 p.m.
